He meant it when he said he hated a secret.

He said there was no place on earth for a man to look for sympathy and love if he couldn't find it in his own family; and he never had been so happy since I had been big enough to notice his moods as he had been since all of us knew about the Princess.

He didn't wait for father to ask why he'd changed his mind about the place to begin.
"You see," he said, "a very charming friend of mine expressed herself strongly last night about the degrading influence of farming, especially that branch of agriculture which evolves itself in a furrow; hence it is my none too happy work to plow the west eighty where she can't look our way without seeing me; and I have got to whistle my favourite 'toon' where she must stop her ears if she doesn't hear; and then it will be my painful task, I fear, to endeavour to convince her that I am still clean, decent, and not degraded." "Oh Laddie!" cried mother.
"Abominable foolishness!" roared father like he does roar once in about two years.
"Isn't it now ?" asked Laddie sweetly.

"I don't know what has got into her head.

She has seen me plowing fifty times since their land has joined ours, and she never objected before." "I can tell you blessed well!" said mother.